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Emerging Churches and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

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Emerging Churches and the Gospel of Jesus Christ Emerging Churches and the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Young Adult Ministry of Fellowship Bible Church 1210 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027 www.InversionFellowship.org | www.FellowshipNashville.org By Reid S. Monaghan Notes Emerging Churches and the Gospel of Jesus Christ Table of Contents Introduction 2 My Story in Brief… 5 Streams of Emerging Churches 9 Emerging vs. Emergent 14 Deconstruction, Deconstruction… What’s Your Function? 17 Helpful Questions 19 Construction – What Should We Build? 27 Concerns … 30 Conclusion 46 Appendix 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom 50 Appendix 2 - The Reformed Resurgence 58 Endnotes 62 72 Introduction Robinson, Jeff. Engaged by the Culture: Michigan Megachurch Goes Egalitarian One might say that the last decade or so has been a bit interesting in terms of Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, September 27, 2004, evangelical Christianity and its relationship to culture and the future generations in the accessed October 3 2007; Available from http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/ West. It has been a time of soul searching dialogue and conversation about all manner Engaged-by-the-culture-Michigan-megachurch-goes-egalitarian. of issues. Many have realized that there have been immense cultural shifts in western Stetzer, Ed. Understanding the Emerging Church Baptist Press, 2006, accessed culture which have brought us to a new situation for the life of the church. Gone are the September 29 2007; Available from http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews. days where the Christian faith was the dominant story in the common consciousness. asp?ID=22406. Gone are the days where it could be assumed that most people had their lives, or at least their literary lives, shaped by the stories and text of the Holy Bible. Gone are the days Stetzer, Ed. Church and Contemporary Culture—Always a Challenge Catalyst, when the gospel could be shared with the assumption that there were general shared 2007, accessed October 2 2007; Available from http://www.catalystspace. meanings with terms like God, sin, salvation, Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Heaven. com/content/monthly/detail.aspx?i=1198&m=01&y=2007. This is reality today in many western cultures. Europe and Australia are perhaps further Webber, Robert, John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Karen M. Ward, and Mark down this cultural trajectory, but America is not far behind in its popular conceptions Driscoll. Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives. of Christian ideas. Parts of America, segments of the west coast and the northeast, are Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007. every bit as secular and post-Christian as Europe. What to do? Intellectuals have long seen these shifts coming, but ideas take time to arrive across Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. the horizons of the masses. Even longer to make it to populations who have valued cul- 1st ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. tural reclusion and isolation as much of the Christian subculture has since the early Note All Scripture quotations in this publication are from The English Standard Version (ESV) of The Holy Bible © Crossway Books. 2 71 Lewis, Robert, and Rob Wilkins. The Church of Irresistible Influence. Grand 20th century. Indeed, skepticism and rejection of certain ideas is as old as history, but Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001. today we have seen a change in our cultural beliefs and values which has come across at all levels of culture. So what is the church to do? Some Christians in every era simply McLaren, Brian. Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of reinvent the faith to match the cultural ideas and sensibilities of the age. This was the Hope Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007. case with 19th century liberal theology which did its best to put spiffy new clothes on McLaren, Brian. Willow Creek Arts Conference 2007 - Mclaren and Loveless 2007, Jesus and recreate Him for the scientific age. What was left was a nice man, who taught accessed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vquwIObeOaA. nice things, whose followers invented fairy tales about him which were found “unac- ceptable to the modern scientific mind.” It was a Jesus that looked very much like his McLaren, Brian D., and Leadership Network (Dallas Tex.). The Story We creators, but very little like the Jesus of Scripture. Other Christians choose to fight, to Find Ourselves In : Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian. 1st ed. separate from the world and loft bombs over walls towards non-Christian teaching and San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003. lifestyles. Others have taken a path of engagement, living among new cultural ideas Pagitt, Doug, and Tony Jones. An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. Grand Rapids, while holding fast to the Christian gospel and seeking to reach people who are influenced Mich.: Baker Books, 2007. by new mindsets. I think this actually happens continuously in every age and in the lives of countless Christians. Pearcey, Nancy. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. I think much of the conversation today around the church’s response to “postmod- Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004. ernism” or the “post-colonial, post-imperial, post-Christendom” West has to do with how Perkins, John. With Justice for All. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1982. we relate Christ to culture today. Should the church join the “post” party? Should she pick up the medieval battle ax or the modernist howitzer and fight? Should she engage? And if so, what must change? What should emerge? Hence we arrive on the scene of 70 3 contemporary western Christianity. Some desire a revision of all things to fit the current Emergent Village accessed September 27 2007; Available from cultural milieu and ideas, others desire to pick fights—usually with Darwin or others http://www.emergentvillage.org/. who are navigating the hazy middle. Is that middle Frame, John. Certainty accessed October 3 2007; Available from http://www.frame- way a place of relevance with faithfulness? Or is it poythress.org/frame_articles/2005Certainty.htm. just another slow road to heresy? The conversation that lives under the names Gibbs, Eddie, and Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Emerging (or emergent) Church is the story of Community in Postmodern Cultures. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2005. people who have taken up the task to try to be Grudem, Wayne. “Redemptive Movement Trumps Scripture“ In Evangelical the church in this era. There has been much Feminism, a New Path to Liberalism Wheaton: Crossway, 2006. deconstruction of “how we do church,” there has been much “generative friendship” and dialogue Jones, Tony. Different Versions of Christianity 2007, accessed October 4 2007; and many are charting various courses toward a Available from http://tonyj.net/2007/10/02/different-versions-of-christianity/. new day for Christian faith. Some see a coming revolution which has little to do with Kinnon, Bill. The People Formerly Known as the Congregation 2007, accessed churches. Others see a complete revision of all things—they fly the flag of the Emer- March 2007; Available from http://www.kinnon.tv/2007/03/the_people_form.html. gent Village. Another sees a resurgence of reformed biblical teaching living as mission- aries very much within the cultures of our day. Kunkle, Brett. Essential Concerns Regarding the Emerging Church Stand to In this piece I have a few modest goals. First, I want to give a short history of some Reason, 2006, accessed September 25 2007; Available from http://www. of the emerging conversation and the critiques being offered to the church today. In giv- str.org/site/DocServer/Essential_Concerns_Regarding_the_Emerging_Church. ing the history I will allow two views to talk about the various streams and movements pdf?docID=1441. 4 69 Bibliography making up the Emerging Church conversation. I will then talk about some of the good and bad coming from the discussion and will do this using the terms deconstruction and Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. construction. Deconstruction is to take apart things we do, ask questions and propheti- Biema, David Van. “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.” Time Magazine cally call into question in order to bring change. Construction is to form praxis and 2005. doctrine, living and teaching. This perhaps may create new forms, but the goal is to take the eternal and bring it effectively into the now. I find both deconstructive and construc- Carson, D. A. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church : Understanding a tive moves needed for true reform to take place. In conclusion, I will offer some thoughts Movement and Its Implications. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005. as to a way forward with faithfulness and relevant church life in culture. But before we jump into a history of the emerging conversation, allow me to confess who I am and how Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy. Image Books ed. New York: Doubleday, 2001. I have been influenced in the emerging dialogue. Driscoll, Mark. The Radical Reformission - Reaching out without Selling Out. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2004. My Story in Brief… I grew up outside of the Christian church. I had no religious life other than a Driscoll, Mark. “A Pastoral Reflection on the Emerging Church.” Criswell Theologi few visits to a Baptist church at about age four and a few trips to mass with my cal Review 3, no. 2 (2006): 87-83. Irish Catholic grandmother who thought we would end up in limbo if we died as Dyke, Dale Van. Review: Velvet Elvis - Repainting the Christian Faith accessed unbaptized kids. My dad had left the Catholicism of his youth while in college October 3 2007; Available from http://www.reformation21.org/ and no longer believed in Jesus. So, my brother and I were unbaptized Irish kids, Past_Issues/2006_Issues_1_16_/2006_Issues_1_16_Shelf_LIfe/ a strange thing, but we really didn’t care.
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